Houwei stuns Jorgensen

Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen lost in the semis.

China's Tain Houwei will square off against Denmark's Viktor Axelsen in the men's singles final of the Dubai BWF World Superseries Finals on Sunday coming through their respective semifinals on Saturday.
Houwei had to dig deep to get the better Denmark's Jan O Jorgensen 21-17, 19-21, 21-13 in a little over an hour, while Axelsen edged past Son Wan Ho of Korea 21-17, 21-19 in 56 minutes, at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
It was a brilliant result for Houwei who had beaten Jorgensen only twice before in eight meetings. The pair had also met in the inconsequential Group A game on Friday, which the Chinese had won 21-16, 22-20.
But this one mattered a lot more as the shock victory put Houwei in the final.
"It was a different kind of match, he changed the tactics and I couldn't cope up that well with the kind of things he came up with," said Jorgensen.
"Sometimes he was playing a rallying style and then he changed to a very offensive style. That why I couldn't get any rhythm and made too many mistakes. I made too many mistakes. Sometimes you need to go in there and get physical and I didn't dare to do it, so I took some easy chances and made too many mistakes. I think he played well, he changed the tactics a lot, a bit different from the last time we played and that worked well for him," added the Dane.
Meanwhile, Axelsen avenged his Group B defeat to Son Wan Ho with a clinical victory in the semifinal.
Elsewhere, in the women's doubles semifinal, Olympic gold medallists Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan defeated Kamilla Ry Juhl and Christinna Pedersen 21-12, 21-11.
"Our focus this year was the Olympic Games," said Takahashi.
"It's tough to go back to the level we were in Rio but we are getting there. As we played more games, I'm getting a good feeling about my play. We are trying to approach this tournament in the same way as we did the Olympic Games," she added.
"It was one of those days," said Juhl. "We were not 100 percent today, and you have to be at 100 percent to have a chance against them. They were one step ahead on every rally," she added. - james@khaleejtimes.com